“I Am European” Journalist inspires legal change for more Migrant Worker Rights in Estonia

^{Photographer: Gregor Alaküla}

EU DEAR Project “I Am European (IAE)” completes its work after three years of fostering public debate and increasing media coverage of migration, refugee and diversity issues that is nuanced and evidence-based. Migrants are often reported as part of statistics – they do not have a name, a story or a voice. “I Am European” covered migration in a more personal way to build a more inclusive culture for migrants and refugees in Europe.

The project has published a collection of stories of both migrants and other partners it has worked with. We share the one of Eliisa Matsalu - one of over 1000 young journalists who created content on migration, committing to a more fair and balanced representation of migration.

Eliisa Matsalu is a member of the investigative team of the Estonian business daily Äripäev. Thanks to a scholarship from the “I Am European” project, she researched the mistreatment of foreign workers within some posted worker schemes, and interviewed many organisations that deal with foreign workers. Eliisa knew the problem was large, yet felt it had received insufficient attention in society. She wanted to change that.

Eliisa published an extensive article and produced a podcast episode about how a lot of foreign workers are mistreated in Estonia and across Europe. She researched several cross-border job placement services and found that migrant rights were disrespected. The Estonian Association of Media Companies awarded her “Best Podcast” among their 2021 journalism prizes.

Most importantly her work had impact. Shortly after the story was published, the Estonian Interior Minister at the time, Kristian Jaani, promised to change the law. He kept his promise: a couple months later, the police was once again able to bring to court people who took advantage of and mistreated migrants in the workplace. 

In the published article and podcast Eliisa highlighted the limitations imposed on the Estonian police. Because of one court case, police were not allowed to arrest employers who had used illegal workforces, for almost two years. To find out about the legal cases in Estonia, Eliisa researched labour dispute commission documents. The situation was in fact worse than she thought. She discovered that one case of illegal workforce was found every three days.

Eliisa faced many hurdles on the way. The hardest part was getting in touch with people who were mistreated in Estonia. The majority had left the country and did not want to talk about their mistreatment to the media. They were scared. But Eliisa gained their trust and captured some of their stories. Stories that gave the migrants a voice and provided the human side of the statistics and legal cases against human abuse. Eliisa wants to continue reporting about human rights and workforce mistreatment cases - and make the world at least a little bit better place.

More information about “I Am European”:

Focusing on young people, media training, school simulations, virtual reality experiences and speaker tours helped build empathy and inclusion in eight EU Member States. At the heart of the social media campaigns are real people with real experiences and stories of migration.

IAE helped change young people’s attitudes and behaviour by raising awareness on the reasons and drivers of migration, disseminating personal stories and facilitating connections with migrant youth. Over 900,000 young people reported that they have taken action to promote integration, acceptance and tolerance.

1280 teachers, youth workers and other multipliers increased their awareness of migration through global education activities. Over 1000 young journalists created content on migration, committing to a more fair and balanced representation of migration.